[Patent document 1]: JP-2009-519171 A (US 2009/0030570 A1)
[Nonpatent document 1]: ISO 14229-1 (UDS)
There is conventionally proposed a method for connecting a diagnostic tool to a computer which controls movement of a vehicle, and diagnosing an operation failure (for example, refer to Patent document 1).
Further, there is an apparatus which connects the diagnostic tool to the computer that controls movement of the vehicle and diagnoses an operation failure. Such an apparatus is compliant with a predetermined telecommunications standard like Nonpatent document 1 and achieves communication between the diagnostic tool and the computer that controls movement of the vehicle. Furthermore, the apparatus follows a request format stipulated in the predetermined telecommunications standard to be able to perform read-out or writing of data from the diagnostic tool to a storage media (for example, a built-in storage media such as RAM and ROM, also referred to a stipulated storage media) of the computer that controls movement of the vehicle.
In this apparatus, an address area of the stipulated storage media is naturally assigned with real addresses; thereby, the read-out of data from or the writing of data to the stipulated storage media can be enabled by using the request format that is stipulated in the predetermined telecommunications standard while designating a real address of a stipulated storage media. In contrast, there is a storage media whose address area has a real address that is not defined as being enabled to accept read-out or the writing of data using a request format that is stipulated in the predetermined telecommunications standard. In other words, such a storage media (also referred to as a non-stipulated storage media) has naturally a real address; however, the real address of the non-stipulated storage media is not defined or stipulated in the predetermined telecommunications standard. Thus, the read-out of data and the writing of data with respect to that non-stipulated storage media cannot be executed.
For instance, much information useful for failure diagnoses is stored in non-stipulated storage media such as an EEPROM or flash memory connected to a microcomputer, and a memory device mounted in another ECU. However, the real addresses of these non-stipulated storage media are not defined or stipulated as a real address that can be designated by the request format stipulated in the predetermined telecommunications standard; thus, the read-out of data and the writing of data to those non-stipulated storage media other than the above stipulated storage media cannot be achieved under the predetermined telecommunications standard.
To that end, an interface device may be separately needed for accessing the non-stipulated storage media; further, another diagnostic tool may be needed to be connected to this interface to achieve the writing or read-out of the data with respect to the non-stipulated storage media.